


Lovers in Arms

by Daddy_Blue



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: America just gave the rebels weapons, Based off of a role play, Because this is at the point where the Army didn't allow Gay people in their ranks, Blood and Gore, Blu signing off, Closeted Characters, I'm not sorry, If I made you cry, M/M, Mentions of the Taliban, No Voltron or anything, RIP, Shes only mentioned though, Shiro also swears a lot- it comes with being in the Army, Sorry not sorry folks, Spoiler Alert the Soviet Union started it, and training, closeted homosexuality, i cried too, if you couldn't tell, imma stop now, now look what we've done, this is an au where Shiro and Matt were drafted into the Army
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-09
Updated: 2018-03-09
Packaged: 2019-03-29 01:06:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13916103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daddy_Blue/pseuds/Daddy_Blue
Summary: Screw this- screw the Army, screw the Taliban.Screw the Soviet Union for starting all of this shit- screw war.War could kiss his fucking ass.Shiro just wanted this to be over.Shiro just wanted to go home so he could see Matt hug his sister once again.





	Lovers in Arms

**Author's Note:**

> Heyo! I had this floating around in my head for a while, and when I finally wrote it, it was some shitty two paragraph- three to four sentences apiece- that I made as like a bad dream that Shiro had in a role play. It was used as a plot device, and then I realized it could become so much more. 
> 
> And because I like torturing my boys so much, here you are~

The bright desert sun and the boiling winds bore down on the tall figure of Staff Sergeant Takashi Shirogane, the body of his best friend and Second Lieutenant Matthew Holt strewn across his shoulders in an unmoving, bloodied heap.

 

Shrapnel stuck in random places all over the left side of his body- the biggest piece lodged about a half an inch into his neck, just missing the jugular.  Blood ran down from Matt’s neck, arms, his back- seeping into Shiro’s uniform, making the elder man shiver every few moments as he practically flew towards their drop site.

 

It made Shiro’s heart clench even tighter to have to carry his friend so carefully over his shoulders, as to not damage Matt’s broken leg even more. Hearing the telltale pops of multiple rounds of gunfire, Shiro dives behind an overturned car, holding Matt’s horrifying limp body to his chest to ensure no further damage would happen to his brother in arms.

 

Bloodshot eyes look over the body in his arms, the sight making Shiro want to lurch over an upchuck the contents of his stomach. Seeing Matt like this- this was something he never wanted to see ever again, he wanted so desperately to see the Holt’s goofy smile again. He wanted to see Matt laughing and messing around with their platoon, he wanted to see the way that Matt’s gorgeous eyes lit up every time at the notion of playing a prank, or the way the lines around those eyes went lax when their group got some off time.

 

Screw this- screw the Army, screw the Taliban.

 

Screw the Soviet Union for starting all of this shit- screw war.

 

War could kiss his fucking ass.

 

Shiro just wanted this to be over.

 

Shiro just wanted to go home so he could see Matt hug his sister once again.

 

 _‘We can’t all get what we wish for, Shiro’_ he can see his mother now, right there in his head condescendingly chiding him as he continued to wish for foolish, unobtainable things.

 

Pressing his face into Matt’s sternum, he tenses up as another grenade goes off a good kilometer away, and sobs into his best friend’s uniform- rambling his way inter hysterics as he lay there and waited for the gunfire to die down a bit so he could continue running.

 

Privates all around him were either carrying their wounded brothers, or being carried. A few even managed to grab the hostages his platoon were sent to rescue- but quickly found out that their information had been wrong, that it wasn’t just their targets in the abandoned village.

 

They had been prepared for things to go wrong, but not like this. It seemed like the entire Taliban was there- they needed backup, they needed air support, and most of all Shiro _needed_ to get Matt to safety.

 

Picking his face up and out of Matt’s chest, his brother in arms’ blood smeared crudely over his face and cheek- mingling with the shallow slice he received from the shrapnel of the hand grenade whizzing by- he looks down at Lieutenant Holt with a wildly desperate look dwelling in his eyes.

 

"Don't you dare leave me with these fucking idiots, Matthew Holt! I can't believe you, throwing yourself in front of me like that- You aren't allowed to die, goddammit- I forbid it! I'm the one who's supposed to protect you, I'm the one who supposed to push you out of the way of a fucking grenade- not the other way around!" These words were practically shouted at the ginger laying limp in his arms, and as Matt’s head lolled backwards from the movement of being shook- Shiro wanting only to remove the metal bits, but knew it was safer to leave them in.

 

He couldn't stop the urge to just pull everything out and nurse his precious friend back to health. He couldn’t do that, though- unfortunately, that metal embedded into Matt’s skin was the only thing keeping the ginger from bleeding out onto the dusty dirt road.

 

He could do this- he could keep Matt awake enough so that the medics could securely get those blasted bits out of him.

 

But with air support was about a minute and a half out, that was a minute and a half that a part of Shiro knew that Matt wouldn’t be able to survive. With as much pain Matt had to be in and as much blood that Matt had lost, Shiro knew that the human heart could only take so much before just refusing to work anymore.

 

Eventually, the gunfire began to cease- most likely because his charges within his platoon were smart- they knew when they needed to hide, and when to shoot back- so taking this as his chance, Shiro hoisted Matt back over his shoulders, and bolted across the sandy road. Bobbing and weaving and taking extra care to dive behind overturned vehicles whenever he could. Looking back occasionally, he nodded in approval to see all of his charges doing the same as him.

 

The ones who weren’t burdened with bodies were their cover.

 

From the distance, he could hear the telltale _fwip fwip fwip fwip_ of what sounded like at least three birds- helicopters-, maybe four, headed in their direction. Two were for air support, Shiro guessed, and the others were most likely their medical support.

 

With a dumb little smile- yes, dumb, he was happy and _relieved_ because Matt was going to actually _make it_. He was going home where he should have stayed in the first place, instead of following Shiro into the war- Staff Sergeant Shirogane bolts for the last leg of his journey over to the birds’ drop site. Their Dustoff would soon take place and Matt would be taken to the Military Hospital about 15 klicks north of their drop off point.

 

As Shiro takes cover by another car, this time he feels a tug on the pants leg of his uniform- making him stop and gently remove Matt from his shoulders, laying him down after the ginger hoarsely demands that Shiro do so. Once Matt had been situated, Shiro looks over the boy- he calls him this, because Matt looks so much younger than he actually is, except for now, with shrapnel shoved into his skin, he looked so much older that it terrified Shiro even more than he already was- and holds Matt’s face in his hands.

  


"Take.. Take care of K-Katie for me.." eyes widening, Shiro shakes his head and stutters out his reply, hands fumbling to get out his med kit. The helos were taking too damn long to touch down- this was fucking bullshit.

 

"N-No! You're going to be okay, you're going to go home and you going to see you mom and you’re going to tell me in a letter how your sister tackled you to the ground after this, you’re gonna tell me how she cried into your shoulder and bawled because she missed you so much and was so glad to see you alive. I’m not going to be the one she bawls into- I refuse! She isn’t going to bawl into my shoulder at the reception of your funeral, Matt! Do you understand me, you ginger piece of shit? You're going to live, Matt, and everything is going to be okay-" Shiro found himself stopping short as Matt shakily leaned up, and pressed his bloodied lips to Shiro's, a weary and exhausted smile across his lips as he said his final words.

 

"Love.. L-Love you, T-Takashi.."

 

* * *

 

 

_Five years later- Shiro is Honorably Discharged out of the Military as a Lieutenant Colonel, missing a limb and given the Medal of Honor for his heroic act of slapping a grenade out of the ditch his platoon had been hiding in._

“H-Happy Birthday, Matt. I, uh.. I brought you daisies this time- I know you don’t really care much for flowers, but.. I-I remember when we were six, and we made all those flower crowns from the daisies in the backyard of my house.. And, a-and my mom came out and saw us playing and gave us lemonade, a-a-and cookies as a snack.” Sniffling softly, Shiro rubs at his nose and at his eyes- not caring that he was getting his nicely pressed suit all messed up.

“I.. I remember, back then, when you used to bite your cookies into little shapes- that day you made a dinosaur, a star, and a heart that fell apart right after you made it. You.. You were so sad, that I had to hug you for an hour to help you feel better.. Do.. Do you remember that, Matt? How you cried into my shoulder for a full ten minutes because you worked so hard on biting the cookie _just_ right to make a perfect curve for the top of the heart.” laughing wetly, Shiro once again wipes at his face, before just letting the tears run down his reddened skin and the man dropped to his knees, Medal on his chest and what was left of his arm in a sling.

“You had said that you wanted to give it to me, because you couldn’t give me your actual heart… Until you did.” saying this, was all it took for Shiro to break down and sob into his hand. “Why d-did you do it, Matt? Why did you die for me? A life without you means nothing, so why did you have to be stupid and die for me? Why did you have to be selfish! Why did you have to follow me into the Army- why did you have to train by my side for nine fucking years, only to die before I could tell you that I love you back?”

Shiro was just rambling now, and his rambling just turned into loud, disgusting sobs. He was pretty sure that the people around him were staring, but Shiro could care less. He hadn’t visited Matt’s grave since the burial, he hadn’t wanted the chance to get closure- he hadn’t wanted to look at Matt’s tombstone because that would’ve made everything all the more real. When Shiro’s sobs quieted down, the broken man looked up at the cross sitting over Matt’s grave, lip wobbling something fierce, before his good hand reached out and placed itself on top of the left side of the crucifix.

“I.. I love you too, M-Matt.. Even.. Even though y-you’re gone.”


End file.
